Head-mounted lights are widely used in many fields, including surgery and dentistry. Such a headlight, also known as an luminaire, is used to illuminate the surgical work area, but leaves the hands of the surgeon free to perform the surgery. Examples of surgical luminaire include U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,709 to Kloots (Surgeons Headlight with Continuously Variable Spot Size); U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,910 to Price (Head-Supported Illumination Device); U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,257 to Kloots et al. (Headlight); U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,285 to Hicks (Surgeon's Headlight System); U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,620 to Li et al. (Compact Surgical Illumination System Capable of Dynamically Adjusting the Resulting Field of Illumination); U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,291 and RE39,162 to Caplan et al. (Illumination Assembly for Dental and Medical Applications); U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,459 to Gourgouliatos et al. (Surgical Luminaire); U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,523 to Feinbloom (Surgical Headlamp with Dual Aperture Control); U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,208 to Hyde et al. (Light to be Worn on Head); and U.S. Pat. No. 7,134,763 to Klootz (Illumination for Coaxial Variable Spot Headlight). While the medical industry has greatly benefited from the introduction of such headlamps, current lighting systems suffer from a number of deficiencies.
One such deficiency is the heat generated within the luminaire. Since the luminaire is disposed near the surgeon's forehead, the heat generated by the lamp is a cause for concern. Moreover, many luminaire contain an iris that permits the surgeon to adjust the size of the illuminated spot by controlling the degree of dilation or constriction of the iris. The degree of dilation or constriction of the iris is controlled by an iris controller which is mounted on the external surface of the luminaire housing. Unfortunately this controller, which must often be touched by the surgeon to control the iris, is often extremely hot—so much so that the beat may cause the surgeon to experience discomfort during adjustment of the iris. While several solutions to this problem have been attempted in the prior art, none has proven entirely satisfactory.
One complicating factor that must be considered when addressing this problem is the desirability of producing a small, lightweight luminaire. Since medical luminaire are typically attached to a surgeon's head, the size of the device is preferably small, such that the vision of the surgeon is not negatively impacted. Additionally, the luminaire must be lightweight, such that the surgeon will not find the weight of the device distracting. A compact luminaire with a cooled iris controller is desired.